The first step in the risk management process is the identification of workplace hazards. This means looking for those things at the workplace that has the potential to cause harm.
To begin identifying hazards, simply ask the question, 'Does this task/activity/situation/ event has the potential to harm a person, property, environment, and or system?' Another way is to ask the question 'What if?' For example, when inspecting a construction site, ask 'What if a worker walks without a hat in the industrial premises which is either under construction or renovation? The answer may be "in absence of hat it is possible that any falling object may cause harm to the worker", so the falling object is a hazard to a worker and hat may protect the worker's head. These are proactive ways to identify hazards. Hazards can also be identified from records of past accidents and near misses.
What if...?analysis is a structured approach to identify hazards and improves the chances of identifying all of the hazards in the workplace. Persons can ask themselves: 'Is this activity safe? What if this or that occurs - then - what will happen?'
The following are the other most important hazard recognition methods:
Pre-Use Analysis can be applied before any new equipment, device, instrumentation, personal protective equipment, machine, tool, plant facility, etc. are used. This method is applied before exposure to hazards.
The multi-Step Planning Process is applied before hazard exposure and applied to every task, job and activity. To apply this method simply ask a series of questions before doing the task, job, or activity. The question should be similar to:
- What am I going to do?
- What is the purpose of doing this job, task, or activity?
- How will I do that job, task, or activity?
- How could I get hurt doing this job, task, or activity?
- What will I do to prevent accidents (injury, illness health)?
Work Permit is issued before the job, task, or activity done. Some questions asked and a checklist shall be completed to assure that hazards are not overlooked. Generally, the checklist includes the analysis of toxic gas (such as carbon monoxide, H2S), oxygen sufficiency, flammable gas concentration, etc.
Equipment Inspection is implemented on any equipment before it is used or put into operation. Equipment inspection is planned and organized to check overall equipment conditions, safety protective equipment, guarding, emergency stop, etc.
Suggestion Method encourages to propose or suggest potential hazards (and controls) that are contained in a job, task, or activity. Workers consider their past time experiences on the shop floor and field to give suggestions. This method can be used for improving the current hazard identification list.
Safety Patrol can be carried out by every worker in the plant site, not only by persons who are in charge of health and safety matters. Safety patrol may be done during equipment running, plant operation, plant shut down, or whenever it is intended to identify potential hazards.
Visual inspection and observation is the most common and simple way to begin to look for hazards by regular walk-through visual inspections of the workplace. Look at each task the workers do, to see if any hazards are present, such as handling loads, using chemicals or equipment. It may also be helpful to observe workers performing their tasks and the activities involved, such as set-up, operation, cleaning, maintenance, and inspection. This will provide the opportunity to see whether the documented procedure for performing the task is being followed by the workers, or whether workers are taking shortcuts or speeding up work (e.g. by removing guards), etc.
A structured approach to improve the chances of identifying all of the hazards in the workplace will help to take an additional structured approach. It is done by dividing the workplace into groupings such as:
- locations, such as offices, grounds, warehouse or wet areas;
- functions or production processes, such as administration, cooking, washing, cleaning, receiving, forming, or finishing;
- roles, such as electricians, office workers or drivers, technicians;
- tasks, such as working on the lathe, loading the truck, decanting a substance or data processing.
Other ways to help identify hazards include:
consulting workers about
- problems they have encountered in doing their work,
- any near misses or events that have not been reported,
- symptom, experience, such as pain and discomfort in body parts, or changes to vision, hearing, and skin conditions,
- conducting a health and safety audit.
seeking information by
- undertaking workers' surveys (e.g. body maps and discomfort surveys),
- consulting with Workplace Health and Safety Representatives (WHSRs) and workplace health and safety committees,
- knowing the industry's experience of common potential hazards,
- acquiring information from designers, manufacturers, suppliers,
- and other organizations, such as unions, employer bodies, and health and safety consultancies.
testing, measuring, and sampling by means of analyzing
- records and data covering incidents and near misses, worker complaints, sick leave and staff turnover,
- maintenance records, results of surveys, audits, or inspections.
When collecting information to identify hazards, consider the following:
- competency and level of training of workers and its adequacy,
- how people actually use, clean, service, or repair equipment and materials,
- how suitable the things used for the task are, and how well they are located,
- how people could be hurt directly and indirectly by the various workplace aspects,
- how waste materials are or should be disposed
- the life cycles of substances, plant, materials, and premises, which may affect their safety,
- mock drills and reviewing the reports,
- safety reports and audits,
- on-site and off-site emergency plans,
- risk assessment reports,
- examination and reviewing of HAZOP, FMEA, FTA, and ETA, etc.
Some workplace activities may create or increase hazards if they are not properly managed. These include:
- purchasing policies (e.g. if the products, plant, materials, and personal protective equipment that are selected are the cheapest one and are not safely designed, not suitable for the job or suited to the workers using it or are of inadequate quality);
- roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities (e.g. if they are not clearly defined, people will not know what they have to do, when or how to do it. It applies especially in emergency situations);
- excessive physical and mental tasks and job demands which may lead to an inability to keep the worker's mind on the job;
- organizational arrangements, such as shift work and rosters, may lead to fatigue and human error where workers are working for long hours, or are working more than one job;
- levels of supervision and ratio of supervisors to workers e.g. greater levels of supervision are appropriate in some areas;
- key performance indicators e.g. when set too high they create unrealistically;
- performance targets, which can increase the workers' tendency to take shortcuts and increase risks while trying to achieve the targets;
- maintenance and servicing programs for the plant to cover wear and tear training programs, where risk management of the property is emphasized over the risk management of people and safety;
- economic drive.
In recent years, accidents involving major accident hazards (MAHs) industries -in India and overseas have resulted in numerous chemical disasters. Consequently, governments, chemical industries, and communities worldwide are determined to prevent further serious accidents and considering the hazards beyond the plant premises to assess the impacts. Major Accidents Hazards (MAH) industries such as oil refineries, chemical fertilizers, chemical plants, and large fuel and chemical storage facilities where large quantities of hazardous materials are stored, handled, or processed are governed by the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals (MS and IHC) Rules 1989 and subsequent amendments.
Chemical Accidents (Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Response) Rules 1996 under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 have a further advocate to protect people, property, and the environment from chemical accidents. This will be achieved by applying safety obligations to everyone involved with the storage, process, transport, and handling of hazardous materials. Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 also guides to identify and control the hazards, theme 2 deals with the details about the hazards, risks, and control during transportation of hazardous chemicals.
These regulations regulate MAH industries to minimize the likelihood of accidents at these sites and to minimize adverse impacts off-site. This is achieved by assisting the operators of such facilities to meet their safety obligations, which include the provision of:
- a systematic risk assessment;
- emergency plans and procedures;
- a safety management system;
- a program of induction, information, education, supervision, and training for all persons at the facility;
- information to, and opportunities for, consultation with the neighboring community;
- a safety report and audit.
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